Should I Wait???

Im planning on basically building an entire new computer. I didnt ask for anyting for christmas so that my parents can help me pay for a kicka$$ comp. I already have a good enough video card for now (5950 ultra), and a good enough PSU (520w aspire). I definitely would be wanting a mobo that could support PCI-X for when i decide to upgrade the VC, but still has an AGP slot. Maybe i would be better off to get a whole new mobo when i upgrade to PCI-X. I would prefer to get an intel chip, DDR2 (or the fastest DDR ram) 1 gig total, SATA 74 gig raptor, an 80 gig ATA 7200rpm, and a thermaltake case. Not to mention optical drives, sound card, etc. My question is, if I am planning to spend over 1000 for everything except for a VC, PSU, fans, should i wait till new stuff comes out or buy in the next month??? Are most of you guys waiting for the new chip technology to come out, etc.?? Based on my sig below, should i build a basically new system or wait, say, 6 months???

The system you have now will handle anything you throw at it and some of the specs you want aren't cheap or readily available I would wait a few months.
Just my OPINION.

I would also wait a few months since your system is good for now. All the new stuff coming out soon, you'd kick yourself later if you bought new stuff right now.

Yes, definitely wait for awhile, PCI Express video boards will not support AGP, on any of the ones I've seen. PCI-X is the 64bit, 100 or 133Mhz, extension of the PCI bus spec. It's easy to get confused.

Yes, definitely wait for awhile, PCI Express video boards will not support AGP, on any of the ones I've seen.

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I thought I saw some hybrid chipset that could support both, but I could be mistaken. If anything it was one or the other, not both at once.

I agree with everyone else - keep what you have and wait a while to upgrade. Prices will drop and giving new technology some time to mature is invaluable. Unless you've got money to spare, being one of the guniea pig crowd can be disappointing. You could get a couple of those things now, like the Raptor, and tide yourself over until PCI-X and all that jazz become more readily available.

You're right. I hadn't seen any yet, but looks like Asus among others are adapting the PT890 and K8T890 chipsets to run hybrid modes to support both interfaces.

I do have to stress PCI-X and PCI-Express differences. PCI-X is a parallel format PCI bus, while PCI-Express is a serial format bus at much higher speeds. PCI-X is available now on many workstation and server boards and does not support video(outside of regular PCI video cards). PCI-Express has conector widths from 1x to 16x currently and supports video and data.

I do have to stress PCI-X and PCI-Express differences. PCI-X is a parallel format PCI bus, while PCI-Express is a serial format bus at much higher speeds. PCI-X is available now on many workstation and server boards and does not support video(outside of regular PCI video cards). PCI-Express has conector widths from 1x to 16x currently and supports video and data. [/B]

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i was just about to say the samething.

Xaotic said:

I do have to stress PCI-X and PCI-Express differences. PCI-X is a parallel format PCI bus, while PCI-Express is a serial format bus at much higher speeds. PCI-X is available now on many workstation and server boards and does not support video(outside of regular PCI video cards). PCI-Express has conector widths from 1x to 16x currently and supports video and data.

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same here

but i do have a question about pci X. Do we even need the extra bandwith? 4x is enough for me

The main advantage is that it's a change from the parallel interface and uses a more efficient signalling system. It's also modular and can have slots of varying width that replace the PCI 2.0 bus as well. My main issue with current planar designs for desktops is the limited PCI bus bandwidth. I can saturate the PCI bus with 2 high end SCSI drives leaving no bandwidth for other devices. This is why I tend to use workstation duals as I am usually very high in IO levels. The change to PCI-Express allows for functionality only found in higher level boards to come to the desktop. The PCI-Express architecture is very similar to the multiple peer PCI-X architecture. Depending on SB design, the PCI-Express slots can all have their own bandwidth allocation(depends on slot width). This will allow for much higher throughput on IO to any expansion card and makes practical larger scale high speed storage arrays.

Hope this clarifies the spec a bit.

Once again... PCI-X does not do video and is not a new interface.

PCI-Express is the new interface.